1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for authoring or generating, storing and retrieving multimedia messages that may include audio, text documents, images, web pages (URLs) and video. In particular, the present invention relates to a system and method for automatically generating images and links in a multimedia message system. The present invention also relates to a hierarchical message system providing nesting of messages within each other.
2. Description of the Background Art
A large percentage of a typical person""s day is spent communicating with others through various mechanisms including oral and written media. Further, there is often a tradeoff between rich, oral communication media and less rich, written communication media. While oral media enable negotiation, clarification, explanation and exchange of subjective views, written media enable the exchange of large amounts of accurate, objective or numeric data.
This dichotomous relationship between oral and written communication similarly exists within the electronic realm. Simple textual email messages, although easy to author, typically do not allow rich, expressive communication as may sometimes be required. On the other hand, tools for creating richer, more expressive messages, such as multimedia presentation software, are too complex and time-consuming for casual or day-to-day use. Furthermore, multimedia presentation software typically is not designed for use as a bi-directional communication or conversation tool. Multimedia xe2x80x9cdocumentsxe2x80x9d produced using this software tend to present information to an audience, rather than allow user interaction and self-guided learning.
Existing messaging systems employ a single primary media. E-mail uses text, while voicemail uses recorded audio for conveying the message. Some systems allow other media objects to be xe2x80x9cattachedxe2x80x9d to a message, but do not support explicit reference from the message content to the attached objects or particular pieces of the attached objects. Such references are needed in order to allow the sender of the message to, for example, refer to a particular paragraph in a printed document or a face in a photographic image.
A mechanism for specifying these references and a visual representation of the references and indicated media objects is required. Furthermore, a user may wish to refer to/include one or more previous messages in a new message. An efficient means for creating and viewing such hierarchical messages is therefore needed.
Therefore, what is needed is a method for creating a simple and effective multimedia-authoring tool that overcomes the limitations found within the prior art.
The present invention overcomes the deficiencies and limitations of the prior art by providing a system and method for creating, sending and receiving multimedia messages. The multimedia message system includes modules for the automatic generation of visual representations of the media objects and references to them such as thumbnail images and links. The multimedia message system also includes modules for the hierarchical nesting of message within themselves, and automatic updating of generated thumbnails. In one embodiment, the system includes an automatic message creation module, an image generation module, a link generation module, a hierarchical object display module and a dynamic updating module. These modules are coupled by a bus for communication with a processor of the multimedia message system and integrated as a part of the multimedia message system. The automatic message creation module controls other modules such that an object including a thumbnail image of the object""s contents and a link to the original content are created in response to simple user inputs or commands. The image generation module and the link generation module operate in response to the automatic message creation module to generate an image of the object whether it be a web page, a multimedia message, a hypertext link, a video clip, or a document; or to generate a link or reference to the original object from which the image was formed, respectively. The hierarchical object display module allows the system to retrieve and display information referenced by an object and shown by the thumbnail image corresponding to the object. The system also includes the dynamic updating module that automatically updates the thumbnail image(s) representing an object any time the underlying object or information from which the image was generated has been modified.
The present invention also includes a number of novel methods including: a method for automatically creating thumbnail images of objects; a method for specifying a reference from recorded audio to a media object or component; a method for automatically creating an object including an image of a web page; a method for automatically creating an object including an image of an existing multimedia message; a method for automatically creating an object including an image from a hypertext link; a method for viewing information for an object; and a method for automatically updating images of an object after a change to an existing multimedia message.